Anchor



y 1970 J. HRIVNYAK ETAL 3,509,846

ANCHOR Filed Nov. 1, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEYS United States Patent O 3,509,846 ANCHOR John Hrivnyak and John B. Hrivnyak, both of 2055 Harvard, Berkley, Mich. 48072 Filed Nov. 1, 1968, Ser. No. 772,575 Int. Cl. B63b 21/34 US. Cl. 114208 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An anchor having a supporting body, a crossbar rotatably mounted on the lower end of the body and including a centrally disposed crank having a journal and carrying a pair of anchor flukes, a spring-biased holding pin mounted in the body and having its lower end normally biased against said journal to maintain said flukes in an operative position, a pivotally mounted release tongue mounted in the upper end of said body and having an inner end arcuate cam surface engaging the upper end of the holding pin, whereby when the release tongue is pivoted to a position to disengage the cam surface from the upper end of the holding pin, the flukes may be moved to an inoperative or ground-releasing position, and when the flukes are released from the ground or an underwater obstruction the spring-biased holding pin will exert a resetting pressure on said journal to return the flukes to the operative position and to permit the release tongue to be pivoted back to the holding position with said release tongue cam surface engaging the upper end of the holding pin, without bringing the anchor to the surface and manually resetting the anchor.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to anchors generally, and more particularly, to an anchor having a self-releasing and selfsetting pair of anchor flukes.

It is well known that anchors having fixed flukes projected from the lower end thereof frequently become lodged on underwater obstructions so that it is very difiicult or impossible to dislodge the anchor, whereby the anchor line must be cut and the anchor abandoned. Heretofore it has been proposed to overcome the aforementioned objectionable features of anchors having fixed flukes by providing an anchor with movably mounted flukes which may be held in one position for anchoring purposes and manually disconnected for releasing the anchor from the bottom of a stream or lake. A disadvantage of the last-mentioned type anchors is that they re quire a specific manual reset of the anchor before it can be used again. The requirement of a manual reset constitutes a grave safety hazard in some instances, as for example during a wind shift when the boat is anchored at night and unattended. Another disadvantage of the lastmentioned type anchors is that they employ a spring tension on the fluke resetting member which creates an additional force to be overcome in the resetting of the anchor flukes. In view of the foregoing, it is an important object of the present invention to provide an improved anchor which overcomes the aforementioned disadvantages of the prior art anchors.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an anchor having a pair of rotatably mounted flukes on one end of an anchor body, holding means for normally holding the anchor flukes in an operative position, and means for automatically disabling said holding means to permit the anchor flukes to be automatically rotated from a holding or operative position into a released position.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an anchor which is simple and compact in structure, economical to manufacture, and which may be easily detached from an underwater obstruction on which it may be engaged.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide an anchor having a supporting body, a pair of anchor flukes rotatably mounted on the lower end of the body, holding means for normally biasing the anchor flukes to an operative ground-engaging position, a pivotally mounted release means mounted in the upper end of said .body and having an inner arcuate cam end normally engaging the upper end of the holding means, whereby when the release means is pivoted to a position to disengage the arcuate cam end from the upper end of the holding means, the anchor flukes will be moved to an inoperative or ground-releasing position, and when the flukes are re leased. from the ground-engaging or operative position, the holding means will exert a resetting pressure on the anchor flukes to return the flukes to the operative position and permit the release means to be pivoted back to the holding position. I

Other objects, features and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following detailed description, appended claims, and the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES IN THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of an anchor made in accordance with the principles of the present invention, and showing the anchor flukes in an operative, groundengaging position;

FIG. 2 is an elevational section view of the structure illustrated in FIG. 1, taken along the line 22 thereof and looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 3 is an elevational section view of the structure illustrated in FIG. 2, taken along the line 3-3 thereof, and looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 4 is an elevational section view of the structure illustrated in FIG. 2, taken along the line 44 thereof, and looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary, elevational section view of the structure illustrated in FIG. 1, taken along the line 5-5 thereof, and looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary, elevational view, partly in section, of the structure illustrated in FIG. 1, taken along the line 6 6 thereof, and looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 7 is a schematic view, showing the anchor of the present invention in a ground engaging or operative position;

FIG. 8 is a view similar to FIG. 7, and showing the anchor lobes moved to an inoperative or released position; and,

FIG. 9 is a fragmentary plan view of a modified anchor body made in accordance with the invention.

PARTICULAR DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring now to the drawings and in particular to FIG. 1, the illustrative anchor of the present invention comprises an elongated, tubular housing or a supporting body, generally indicated by the numeral 10. Operatively mounted on the lower end of the body 10 are a pair of anchor lobes or flukes, generally indicated by the numerals 11 and 12. The solid line position of the anchor flukes 11 in FIGS. 1 and 2 shows the operative or ground engaging position of the anchor flukes 11 and 12. The flukes 11 and 12 may be moved to a position parallel to the body '10 for storage purposes.

As shown in FIG. 1, the numeral 13 generally indicates a fluke supporting crossbar. A spring-biased holding means is generally indicated by the numeral 14 and comprises a holding pin. The holding pin 14 is normally biased into a holding position against the crossbar 13 by a holding spring generally indicated by the numeral 15. The holding pin 14 is engaged at its upper end by an anchor tongue 16 which functions as a combination locking and release rod.

As shown in FIG. 1, the crossbar 13 includes a first crossbar arm 17 which extends sidewardly outward from the anchor body and which is integral at its inner end with the crossbar shaft 18. The shaft 18 is rotatably mounted in a hole 19 which is formed through the lower end of a first side plate 20. The side plate 20 is fixedly secured to one side of the anchor body 10, at the lower end thereof by any suitable means, as by welding. The crossbar 13 includes a second arm 21 which is disposed in a position opposite to the crossbar arm 17. The crossbar arm 21 is integral at its inner end with the crossbar shaft 22. The shaft 22 is rotatably mounted in the hole 23 which is formed through the lower end of a second side plate 24. The side plate 24 is formed similar to the side plate 20 and is afiixed in the same manner to the opposite side (FIGS. 3 and 4) of the anchor body 10. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the anchor fluke 11 is provided with a pair of riser tabs 49 and 50 which are fixed to the crossbar extension or arm 17 by any suitable means, as by welding. The anchor fluke 12 is provided with similar riser tabs 51 and 52, as shown in FIG. 1. The riser tabs 49, 50, 51 and 52 raise the trailing edges of the anchor flukes 11 and 12 and allow the leading, pointed ends of these flukes to dig into a river bottom or the like.

As shown in FIG. 1, the crossbar shaft 18 is integrally connected to a first crank arm 25, and the crossbar shaft 22 is integrally connected to a second crank arm 26. The outer ends of the crank arms 25 and 26 are connected by the transverse integral journal 27.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the holding pin 14 includes a crosshead 28 which is adapted to be normally biased against the journal 27. The crosshead 28 is integrally formed on the lower end of the release pin portion 29 of the release pin 14 which is formed with a rectangular cross section. The upper end of the release pin lower end portion 29 extends upwardly into the bore 30 which is formed in the anchor body 10 and which is open on the lower end of the anchor body 10. The numeral 31 indicates the upper end portion of the release pin 14 which is formed with a circular cross section and which is integrally connected at its lower end to the release pin lower portion 29. The upper end of the release pin portion 31 extends through the reduced bore 32 which communicates at its lower end with-the bore and at its upper end with a transverse slot 33. A shoulder 34 is formed at the junction between the release pin portions 29 and 31, and the lower end of the holding spring 15 is seated on the shoulder 34. The upper end of the holding spring 15 is seated on the shoulder or inner end 35 of the bore 30. It will be seen that the holding spring 15 normally maintains a downward bias on the holding means 14 so as to maintain the journal 27 in the solid line position shown in FIG. 2.

The anchor tongue 16 is provided with an elongated body or rod 36 that has an integral eyelet 37 formed on the outer end thereof. The eyelet 37 is provided with the hole 38 for securingan anchor cable or rope to the anchor tongue 16. A cam 39 is integrally formed on the inner or lower end of the tongue body 36. The cam 39 is provided with an arcuate or rounded cam surface 40 which is formed on a radius having a center point on the axis of rotation of the pivot shaft 42. The upper end 41 of the release pin portion 31 is adapted to be normally engaged by the cam surface 40 in order to lock the holding pin 14 in the solid line position shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 for retaining the fiukes 11 and 12 in their operative positions. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the anchor tongue 16 is pivotally mounted in the slot 33 on the pivot pin 42. When the anchor tongue 16 is moved to the broken-line position 16a of FIG. 2, the cam 39 is moved to the broken-line position shown in FIG. 2 to permit the flukes 11 and 12 to move freely to the inoperative positions as shown by the numeral 11a in FIG. 2. The holding pin 14 is free to be moved to the right as viewed in FIG. 2, or upwardly through the anchor body 10, by the force of the fiukes 11 and 12 engaging obstacles on the bed of a lake or river, and the pressure of the journal 27 is directed against the crosshead 28. The holding pin 14 is moved by the last-mentioned releasing action so that the upper end of the release pin 14 is moved to the released, broken-line position shown in FIG. 2.

FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrate the use of the anchor of the present invention. The schematic illustration in FIG. 7 shows the anchor of the present invention connected by an anchor cable or rope 43 to the bow of a boat 44. The anchor fluke 12 is shown in the operative position with its ground-engaging edge caught in an indentation 48 on an underwater obstacle 47 which is shown as resting on the bottom 46 of a lake or river 45. In order to free the anchor from the obstacle 47, it is merely necessary to move the boat 44 forwardly, or to the left as viewed in FIGS. 7 and 8, so that the anchor tongue 16 is pivoted to move the cam 39 to a position free of the end 41 on the holding rod portion 31. The gripping force of the obstacle 47 against the anchor fluke 12 then moves the same into the position 12a, as shown in FIG. 8, to free the anchor to permit the same to be drawn upwardly. When the anchor is pulled up, the return spring or holding spring 15 functions to create a downwardly directed force against the journal 27 to return the anchor fiukes 11 and 12 into the operative position of FIGS. 1 and 2. The weight of the anchor body 10 swings the anchor body by the force of gravity, or by the straight line force of the boat pulling the freed anchor along the river bottom, into alignment again with the anchor tongue 16 to again bring the cam 39 into a holding engagement with the upper end 41 of the holding pin portion 31, whereby the anchor is again ready for a useful anchoring operation. The angle through which the anchor tongue 16 must be moved to release the anchor flukes 11 and 12 may vary, as desired. In one embodiment the angle through which the anchor tongue 16 is pivoted to release the holding pin 14 is 30".

It will be understood that the elongated body 10 may be formed with a construction other than the tubular construction illustrated in FIGS. 1 through 8. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 9, the anchor body could be formed by extending the side plates 20 and 24 rearwardly for the length of the anchor body and securing these two plates together to form an open type anchor body. The parts of the modified structure of FIG. 9 which are the same as the first embodiment of FIGS. 1 through 8 have been marked with the same reference numerals followed by a small letter a.

As shown in the embodiment of FIG. 9, the lower ends of the plates 20:: and 24a are fixedly secured together by any suitable means in a spaced apart condition, as for example, by a spacer rivet 53 which spaces the arms 20a and 24a apart and secures them in fixed relationship to each other. The rivet 53 would extend through a suitable slot as 54 in the elongated holding pin 28a. A shoulder 35a would be formed at the point where the side plates 29a and 24a are bent inwardly. The plates 20a and 2411 would be secured together at their upper end by any suitable means as by a pair of cross straps 55 which would be fixedly connected to the elongated body side plates 20a and 24a by any suitable means, as welding. The embodiment of FIG. 9 would function in the same manner as the embodiment of FIGS. 1 through 8.

While it will be apparent that the preferred embodiments of the invention herein disclosed are well calculated to fufill the objects above stated, it will be appreciated that the invention is susceptible to modification, variation and change.

What we claim is:

1. In an anchor, the combination comprising:

(a) a supporting body;

(-b) a pair of anchor flukes rotatably mounted on the lower end of said body;

(c) holding means for normally biasing the anchor flukes to an operative position;

(d) a pivotally mounted combination locking and release means mounted on the upper end of said body and having a cam end normally engaging said holding means, whereby when the combination locking and release means is pivoted to a released position to disengage the cam end from the holding means the anchor flukes may be pivoted to an inoperative position to release the anchor flukes from an obstacle on which the anchor flukes may be caught, and when the anchor flukes have been detached from said obstacle the holding means will return the anchor flukes to the operative position and the combination locking and release means may be pivoted to bring he cam end in engagement with the holding means to retain the anchor flukes in the operative position;

(c) said anchor flukes being carried on a rotatably mounted crossbar; and,

(f) said crossbar being provided with a crank having a journal against which said holding means is engaged.

2. The anchor structure as defined in claim 1, wherein said holding means includes:

(a) an elongated member having a lower end in engagement with the journal and an upper end in engagament with the cam end of said combination locking and release means; and,

(b) means for normally biasing said elongated member against said journal to maintain the anchor flukes in an operative position and to reset the anchor flukes when required.

3. The anchor structure as defined in claim 2, wherein:

(a) said biasing means comprising a spring means.

4. The anchor structure as defined in claim 1, wherein said pivotally mounted combination locking and release means includes:

(a) an anchor tongue pivotally mounted on the upper end of said body; and,

(b) said cam end being formed on the lower end of said anchor tongue and having an arcuate outer cam surface engageable with said holding means to lock the holding means to retain the anchor flukes in the operative position.

5. In an anchor, the combination comprising:

(a) a supporting body;

(b) a pair of anchor flukes rotatably mounted on the lower end of said body;

(c) holding means for normally biasing the anchor flukes to an operative position;

(d) a pivotally mounted combination locking and release means mounted on the upper end of said body and having a cam end normally engaging said holding means, whereby when the combination locking and release means is pivoted to a released position to disengage the cam end from the holding means the anchor flukes may be pivoted to an inoperative position to release the anchor flukes from an obstacle on which the anchor flukes may be caught, and When the anchor flukes have been detached from said obstacle the holding means will return the anchor flukes to the operative position and the combination locking and release means may be pivoted to bring the cam end in engagement with the holding means to retain the anchor flukes in the operative position;

(e) said anchor flukes being carried on a rotatably mounted crossbar;

(f) said crossbar being provided with a crank having a journal against which said holding means is engaged;

(g) said holding means including an elongated member having a lower end in engagement with said journal and an upper end in engagement with the cam end of said combination locking and release means, and means for normally biasing said elongated member against said journal to maintain the anchor flukes in an operative position; and,

(h) said combination locking and release means including an anchor tongue pivotally mounted on the upper end of said body, and said cam end being formed on the lower end of said anchor tongue and having an arcuate outer cam surface engageable with said holding means to lock the holding means to retain the anchor flukes in the operative position.

6. The anchor structure as defined in claim 1, wherein:

(a) each of said anchor flukes is provided with a pointed leading end and a plurality of riser tabs on the trailing edge thereof to raise the trailing edge of the anchor fluke and allow the pointed leading end to dig into the bottom of a body of water.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,476,348 7/1949 Alvik et al. 2,870,731 1/1959 Marshburn et al. 114208 TRYGVE M. BLIX, Primary Examiner 

